Estimated to have welcomed around 60,000 visitors
including celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Dita Von Teese between March 15-17, the show generated sales within its first hour, and seemed to have ignited Asian buyers’ curiosity and interest in new pieces that they studied and observed before purchasing. Surreal sculptures and artworks dominated the fair, and the human element played a big interactive part, whether as the artwork subject -a woman posing as a life-like sculpture in Australian artist Sam Jinks’ “Untitled (Kneeling Woman)”- or with live artistic performance -Turkish performance artist Nezaket Ekici created her artwork “Emotion in Motion” live during the launch by kissing a white blank canvas with red lipstick- or with a comical depiction of Queen Elizabeth.
High quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works from the 20th and 21st centuries were on display, fuelling intellectual dialogues and exchanges on a cross-cultural platform. But art wasn’t limited to the exhibition halls and six show sectors, as art fever took over the city’s restaurants, cafes and bars; cocktails inspired by the works of famous artists such as Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst were offered to patrons in celebration of the big art event.
To find out more about the next edition of Art Basel Hong Kong, visit:
